The venerable GNU compiler wins the ACM’s Programming Languages Software Award while simultaneously coming under fire from the Linux creator

ITworld|July 29, 2014

Image credit: flickr/Brad Montgomery (license)GNU's compiler has been recognized for 27 years of service to the software community

The GNU Compiler Collection, better known as GCC, was recently awarded the ACM’s Programming Languages Software Award for 2014. The award is granted annually to individuals or institutions that develop software which has a “significant impact” on the programming world. The award has only been given out since 2010 and GCC follows previous winners the Coq proof assistant (2013), the Jikes Research Virtual Machine (JRVM, 2012), Simon Peyton Jones and Simon Marlow for authoring the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC, 2011) and Chris Lattner for developing the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure (2010).

In recognizing GCC, the ACM noted the contributions that the project and its developers have made over its 27-year lifespan.

“The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) provides a portable, production-quality, standards-compliant, highly optimizing compiler, supporting more architectures, programming languages, and operating environments than any other comparable tool. It provides the toolchain that underpins all of the GNU/Linux distributions, popular websites, and embedded environments.”